1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication control apparatus, a communication control method, and a computer program, and more particularly, to a communication control apparatus, a communication control method, and a computer program that are suitably used for controlling the transmission rate in the case of transmitting packets.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for controlling the transmission rate in a global or local manner, a method for controlling transmission intervals for individual packets in accordance with a high-accuracy clock has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-169090.
In addition, a method for adjusting the amount of data to be transmitted per unit time so that the traffic varying in a local manner does not exceed a line capacity has been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-87010 describes that a transmission-stoppage start time and a transmission resumption time are designated to provide a transmission stoppage period in the middle of transmission of a desired unit of data that is to be collectively transmitted and that by controlling the transmission stoppage period, the transmission rate can be controlled.
In the methods described above, however, it is necessary to control the transmission rate in a stepless manner. Thus, it is necessary to control the transmission stoppage period or the packet transmission interval in accordance with a clock having a significantly high frequency and a significantly high accuracy.
In addition, in the case of controlling transmission intervals for individual packets, it is necessary to designate a transmission start time for each packet. Thus, a problem occurs in that a large computation load is required for designating the transmission start times.